btglow87 said:
Watching Durkin's defense is literally painful.
Why? He runs a 3-2-6 and his adjustment off of it is a 4-1-6. He will not take the overhang safeties (what is typically OLB in a 50 or 3-4) off the field for any reason ever. He also has those overhang safeties tied to #2 (the inside receiver) which is also why Kiffin did wide bunch sets to remove them from the alley where he wanted to run it. Kiffin also ran Dart (pull the tackle) over 15 times in that game because we have no edge defenders.
If you line up like cones you will get treated like cones. I have never seen a DC with some much talent... have said talent get treated like cones. Its embarrassing..... Key game this was incredible true was App State.... they got in Trips with a tight end numb opposite ( 3 wide outs one way and just a tightend the other way) would see where they had numbers and either run the play that way, motion to get what they wanted, or boot action to the uncounted flat (that over and over completion to the tightend). Ohhh they didn't score that much ... ohhh I am sorry the team with a nut hair worth of talent compared to us didn't score much... wow what a job DJ ... oh wait they ran 80 plays and controlled the game and won.
He leaves gaps uncounted for often.... oh oh I am sorry he has backers 2 gapping or multiple interior guys 2 gapping which is why it looks like a gap wider than gurney's gash when we get ripped. Go watch the the TD run for LSU the other night from from the edge of the redzone.... Have yourself count the gaps and count the interior defenders and math might be hard but I will assure you the numbers of gaps to defenders does not match... I could name a ton of examples but that is a recent one.... while we are on the topic of that game.... the best DC in that game was the OC for LSU.... the fact he kept throwing and having the QB read zone was beyond me...… if the QB would of handed it on the scoop and score.... go look at our interior on that play... the damn running back would of hits his head on the goal post... I will take being lucky but god damn..
Also for you folks hanging your hat on that stellar pass defense... understand this.... Miss State ran for over 150 and they are the epitome of Air Raid...… WHY the hell would you throw it when you know you can run it, move the sticks, keep the other offense on the sideline and shorten the game?
In addition to that, we suck in underneath coverage in zone especially the hook/curl.... and for having 6 DBs on the field and drop 8 regularly.... he still does pattern match which is why we void the middle so often.... like if you are going to drop 8 why the hell are you doing match up man? and having guys turning and running with receiver a in 3 MAN PRESSURE look??? why?....
Speaking of pressure.... his blitzes are the most telegraphed nonsense ever.... and he without fail plays man behind it.... maybe Man Free. I bet most of yall could tell when he was bringing "pressure" and have never drawn a blitz in your life. Alabama comes to mind on this one because they gashed us on pressure in that game.... so did South Carolina.... hell so did everyone else.
The most frustrating thing to me is we have some of the most amazing player we could ever ask for.... yet they are ask to make extraordinal efforts to make routine plays in this defense. It hurts to watch those kids play so *********hard in such a asinine scheme. He got this scheme from Jim Heacock ….. but the problem is he didn't take the run game scheme from him... Jim never leaves inside gaps uncounted for in his 3-3!-5.... because he has 3! at the second level to help fill the edges off of the other 4 inside..... somewhere in going to visit with him while he was at old miss.... that part was lost on him..... What he ask our "lone survivor backer" (what I have decided to call it) to do in his asinine front..... its so ridiculous that even prime Rey Lewis couldn't do it with any regular success....
Which is another problem..... what Linebacker recruit or portal transfer Linebacker is going to watch tape of this defense and say ..."oh ya I wanna play in that..." not many if any would be my guess.....
Since the likelihood of Durkin being fired is out of the picture the only solution I could see is this... Since he has gone in an offseason before to visit with another DC (Heacock of Iowa State), have him go meet with a run heavy 3-3-5 scheme guy since he is married to that scheme.... maybe if he does that, than the defense might improve next year and linebackers might actually want to play for A&M.
Last thing I am sure DJ knows football I don't think he is completely ignorant or he wouldn't be the DC at a major university. But what was put on the field this year was not acceptable and if he is truly a good coach like Jimbo thinks he is than maybe he fixes it.... I just don't see it... hope I am wrong but every week this year my hope disappeared like the defenders responsible for the gaps he never had anyone for.
Grammar isn't great but this is all pretty spot on. Durkin basically had only 4 men in the box every single game of the year, often even less than that. Offenses literally only needed their basic 5 men to have a numbers advantage. That's setting your defense up to fail.
The pass defense looked better because the Aggies had Vikings Syndrome; about a decade back, the Vikings had such an outstanding defensive line that teams just could not run on them. So what did they do? They passed it, and they passed it a lot; that team wound up with the #1 rush defense but almost the worst pass defense.
Give some credit where it's due, however; A&M really does have a lot of outstanding corners and safeties on the roster, and most are really, really young. You could torch most of them, but you weren't going to do it twice. If Durkin would just go to a 4-2-5 alignment the pass rush and coverage would align correctly. Edge Cooper is the real f&&&in' deal and he should be leveraged, not left on an island.
